The cute little ladybug continued to hop around in the gray wire prison. It often came within a quarter-of-an-inch to finding total freedom, but each time it did, it hopped back again to deep inside its gray wire prison. Frustrated, I left the screen-door open and went to work in another room. When I came back a few hours later, convinced that I'd find the ladybug gone.......there it still was........my strangely self-imprisoned ladybug.

I don't know if the metaphor works, but I too, am often just like that ladybug. Even now, while watching it, I suddenly became aware of the fact that it was truly magnificent outside, and that I could just get into my car and drive far away to some unknown destination where I'd maybe find some live music, some good art, and an interesting man to flirt with.

So I went.......

I just drove off without knowing where I was going.
And it was wonderful.
I came to a different town, walked different streets, and saw different signs glued to the cars and RV's that were parked there.

LIKE:
"Doctors should teach nutrition
instead of pharmaceutical addiction!"

LIKE:
"More than a million individuals
make more than $25,000 a year selling stuff
on eBay..........are you?"

LIKE:
"There needs to be less corruption
or more opportunity for me
to partcipate in some of it."

LIKE:
"Maybe you're just experiencing
a different reality?"

I walked into a bar, heard some nice music, then discovered that we have some really retarded alcohol laws..........like I can buy a bottle of beer in a bar, but the moment I open it, I'm not allowed to take it outside that bar and drink it on the street or in my car..........but if I buy a CAN of beer in a bar, I can take it to a park, open it there, and drink it there..........is that weird, or what? Who's responsible for having created such totally absurd laws? And why do we stand for it?

Sometime later, I saw a whole lot of really bad art..........after which I discovered one fantastically great artist, and just stood there..........silently..........admiring his work and feeling like it was OK again to be alive, in a world where such a man created the magic of perfect beauty.

I drove through a silent desert of magnificent empty landscapes, remembered the Long Island Expressway, and felt this incredible gratitude for having had the courage to move to a place where I can see the horizon from miles away.

Then I came back home again and smiled, when I discovered that the cute little ladybug had finally escaped from its screen-door prison, and that we had both found the freedom to fly away!